By Britney Martil
Sri Lanka’s tourism industry is on the cusp of a significant revival, driven by a renewed national commitment to leverage tourism as a key pillar of economic recovery. With its rich cultural heritage, breathtaking landscapes, and diverse attractions, the country has immense potential to position itself as a global tourism hotspot.
The tourism industry in the island nation of Sri Lanka is now experiencing a rebirth, largely led by the current president Anura Kumara Dissanayake who sees tourism as the key to restarting the economy. Recently, for instance, it welcomed its two-millionth arrival to the country. Given its favorable cultural profile, variety of unique sights, and only recently discovered picturesque landscapes, Sri Lanka can and should become one of the leading world tourism destinations. Recent government actions that wrought and repositioning of tourism point towards the overarching obligation of supporting advancement of this industry.
Thailand’s record as a tourist friendly country is a classic success story. It is now widely regarded as an international gateway to tourism, hosting millions of tourists every year. It is a country that can accommodate almost any tourist as a country, starting with the capital of Bangkok and finishing list with the island of Phuket. In addition to its cultural and food rich history, adventure tourism, wellness destinations, and much more, there is much to see all year-round. The visa, transportation, and promotional campaigns have made Thailand to become one of the best tourist destinations, elongating the stay.
With plenty of breathtaking beautiful sceneries and exotic destination, Sri Lanka has all prerequisites to adapt the Thai tourism model. Destinations include the historical sites of Anuradhapura and Polonnaruwa, the tea country of Nuwara Eliya, the biodiverse Sinharaja Forest Reserve, and so on. Combined with a 73.3 percent increase in earning tourist dollars during the first seven months of the year, 2024 has been a good year for the sector. But Sri Lanka has to overcome the existing issues and grasp the new opportunities.
The most important of these, the strategic focus area, is infrastructure development. Thai tourism relies on material infrastructure and accessibility to produce fancy amenities to make the experience as appealing as possible. In this regard, Sri Lanka has a long way to go in the development of relevant tourism infrastructure. To cater to the demand, the country needs to increase spending on the expansion of airport terminals, enhancement of roads, and construction of infrastructures in unexplored areas such as the Northern and Eastern parts of the country because the area is gifted with tourism potential.
Marketing is another field in which Sri Lanka can make some real progress. Conventional advertising campaigns are recent and are good. However, there is need to step up the marketing communication to let people know that it is a country of variety and that it is fairly cheap. Government targeted international marketing strategies, which include the use of social media, and targeted advertisements based on countries, have played the key role in reaching out to the younger traveler who is interested in technology. Sri Lanka can thus also expand the audience in a similar way, further focusing on social-media advertising, and developing context-rich, exciting content to promote the island’s appeal.
Efficiency in visa regimes is no less important for increasing tourist flow. Efficient visas to Thailand and in particular visa exemptions for several countries have pulled down the bureaucratic barriers and has therefore enhanced the ease of travelling to Thailand. Although Sri Lanka has recently opened all nations to have free tourist visas, it is a step in the right direction but the above recommendations need further tweaking to cater a position for high value tourists. Also, other measures in safety, hygiene standard, and service delivery would enhance the country’s image of readiness and readiness to host visitors.
Sustainability cannot be an option but must form the center of Sri Lanka’s tourism policy. Thailand has been implementing measures of environmental sustainability and local people involvement that correspond to new tendencies of sustainable tourism. In following the sustainable tourism goals, Sri Lanka may able to promote the potentials of destination attractiveness while at the same time achieving economic and environmental sustainability in the following ways. For instance, the inclusion of eco-tourism facilitated by the locals in such sites as the Knuckles Mountain could give visitors wonderful experience while positively impacting local communities.
Thailand has been also one of the most successful in enthroning continuing tourist traffic due to diversified opportunities and promotional campaigns all the year round. Sri Lanka can also follow this strategy by introducing new products that are for example, taking wellness tourism in monsoon, but adventures in the dry season. The fact that the island has got several types of climates and geographical terrains makes it easy to set up such a variety of experiences. Moreover, close cooperation with international tour operators, extension of options of direct flights may considerably enhance accessibility and the overall number of visitors.
Another lesson for Sri Lanka comes with Thailand’s declared intention and efforts at developing resilience in its tourism industry. The government has also put in place a strong system to control threats from outside the country, including disasters and conflicts hence limiting their effects on the industry. Likewise, it is high time that Sri Lanka gave emphasis on contingency planning and created robust crisis management frameworks that will help to protect this industry from future risks.
President Dissanayake and his administration have signaled considerable intent on turning Sri Lanka into a powerhouse in the tourist industry. Measures like creating new centres of interest for tourists, finding new regions to promote, could be viewed as the long-term vision of the growth in the sphere. But if this vision is to be realized, it needs more than private efforts and resources, extending to intersectoral cooperation, international experience and involvement, and community participation.
Sri Lanka has already achieved exceptional recovery to tourism where foreign tourist arrivals. There was a rise in the number of travelers in the country in February, with more than 218,000 arrivals in that month, a factor attributed to good weather as well as promotion campaigns. India remains the largest source market for Sri Lankan tourism, followed by the UK, Russia, Germany, China, and so on. These countries find Sri Lanka a destination that offers them culture, ecotourism, luxury, and much else besides.
Constant growth of the tourism business not only confirms the stability of this sphere, but also proves the contribution of the sector to the development of the country’s economy. There is evidence that it favors directly numerous sectors, for example, the sector of hospitality, transport, and retailing, and contributes to the generation of income for the population.
Finally, it must be noted that Sri Lankan tourism sector is in a very strategic position to among the finest tourism destinations of the world. If Sri Lanka follows the Thailand comprehensive model, the country can challenge the problems and have more potential impacts. By working hand in hand, Sri Lanka cannot just recover the destroyed parts of their tourism sector, but also create a destination that keeps everybody enamored.
Britney Martil is a law student at the Kotelawala Defence University.
Factum is an Asia-Pacific focused think tank on International Relations, Tech Cooperation, Strategic Communications, and Climate Outreach accessible via www.factum.lk.
The views expressed here are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect the organization’s.
